


A Dangerous Truth (?)

by TheNerdyTurtle96



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Breaking Mirrors, Fainting, Gen, Hows that for an oxymoron?, Ill tag more later when I’m less distracted, Three-part oneshot, Unexplained Illness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28526715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNerdyTurtle96/pseuds/TheNerdyTurtle96
Summary: Something is wrong with xB, and he knows it. He’s just not quite ready to go. Not quite ready to surrender to the dangerous truth. Or at least, what he thinks is the dangerous truth.
Comments: 30
Kudos: 33





	1. Crash

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tristan_Trans](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tristan_Trans/gifts).



> This started as a request from the lovely @Tristan_Trans on Ao3 for more xB angst. In my very old drafts, I happened to have a snippet that really helped me start. Plus, this gave me an opportunity to introduce my original magic AU that I’m thinking about using in an in-progress multi-chapter and my version of Evil Xisuma’s backstory. Really, this story is killing four birds with one stone. My maximizer heart is happy. (This story is not… sorry not sorry.)

Hundreds of miles away from any other person, a man was looking into a mirror. The surface was composed of a sheet of glass, which would easily shatter into a million pieces with a firm enough blow. Though xB knew it was likely not a smart decision to break the mirror, he couldn’t help seriously contemplating it. The picture in the reflection was something he most definitely didn’t want to see.

Shades of purple sparkled and shone in xB’s eyes in place of the normal, simple cyan. The first time he had seen it was a passing glance a few weeks back. He had brushed it off as a fluke, and he hadn’t gone past any mirrors since then. Truth be told, there weren’t many mirrors on Hermitcraft, but he had still made careful sure to avoid them. This one time he had forgotten, however, and now his worst fears were coming true. 

Violet eyes were abnormal. They were dangerous. They marked those whose magic gave them the potential to commit terrible atrocities. Voidwalkers were able to see all around the timeline - past, present, and future. Admins could manipulate the very internals of people. Slashers could do nothing but hurt, kill, and destroy. Those were the ones with violet eyes.

Eye color switching like this was impossible. Never had there been a documented case of this. Nevertheless,  _ he  _ was dangerous, and the purple marked him as such. It was simply easier to hide away, break all the mirrors, and remove everything that could break his false facade of reality.

Even if xB couldn’t deny the problem forever, he could at least attempt to reason it away. Maybe his senses of color were broken, therefore his eyes had never changed. Most likely, it was just a glitch. It would eventually go away when Xisuma found it, and was logically nothing to worry about. It wasn’t causing him pain or destroying his buildings. Nothing to get the admin worked up about.

Speaking of him being an admin, Xisuma had beautiful violet eyes. Though they were often hidden by his helmet for fear of what outsiders would assume, he didn’t wear the helmet too often around the other hermits. They all knew that they could trust Xisuma to protect them and not to harm them when he worked with his admin magic. However, Xisuma was most certainly an exception, xB reasoned. Most with purple eyes had evil intent. If he really had purple eyes, then he was too dangerous for anyone else to be around.

The captivating tones of the violet eventually drug xB out of his thoughts and back to the horrid picture in the mirror. That wasn’t the worst of it, though. 

Clutching his head in shock, xB watched as his irises shifted into an odd symbol that flooded his head with horrid memories. Amid the black pupil, four white dots poked through in a perfect square arrangement. As he continued to study the shape, it slowly began to rotate clockwise. 

_ What… the hell?  _

Though he had no idea what it meant, all the blood in xB’s body drained to his feet, and his stomach seemed to drop just as low. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. A shifting eye color was bad enough, but this?  _ What was happening to him? _

Gradually, glimpses and small pieces of random objects he had never seen began to flash before his eyes. They started small, but grew larger and lingered longer as he stared at the rotating dots in his eyes. A ringing static rose in volume, as well, drowning out everything coherent thought.

He tried as hard as he could to resist it, but the current built up, and the dam eventually broke. The pressure in his head grew tighter and tighter, until he crumpled to the floor, sobbing from the pain. It only grew worse, though, and a raw scream forced itself out of him. The last of his strength spent, consciousness soon left him.

Everything was fading to black, but the images wouldn’t go away.

A flash here.

A piece there.

Indescribable light cascading through his brain, destroying everything in its path.

Violet eyes.

Four white dots slowly rotating.

Then, nothing.

  
  
  


When he finally came to, xB was alone. The black slowly faded out, but the white did not come back. The overwhelming images were gone, thankfully. His head wasn’t nearly as tight, and the horrid ringing had left. It felt like nothing had ever happened. 

Yet, when he weakly pulled himself up to his feet, gripping the edge of the counter oh-so-tightly, the mirror was there to shatter his fragile self-assurances once more. 

Violet eyes.

Four white dots, slowly rotating.

It was real. It was all too real.

After a second, xB finally pried his eyes away from the stupid picture. A deep breath flowed through his entire body, somewhat stabilizing him once again. Finally, he felt prepared to leave.

On his way out the door, he took one last look at the mirror, being careful not to get trapped into its pattern of panic. He studied his hands, worn and callused from so much building. Then, he raised his left fist and thrust it into the glass. 

The crash was instant and deafening. Shards scattered all over the counter and spilled onto the floor. Several were forcefully embedded into his knuckles, choking out a whimper of pain. But the glass had a large hole in it, and the power of purple irises could spellbind him no more. That was enough to shrug off the pain.

Mirrors were dangerous. They told him that he was dangerous. And that was a truth that he didn’t want to hear.    
  


—————

Regardless of what he told himself, the awful truth continued to nag at xB. It hovered in the back of his head, whispering at the worst of times that he couldn’t deny his true nature. He was destined to be dangerous, and everyone needed to stay away.

His base was already miles away from all the other hermits. He knew the less-traveled tunnels of the Nether dimension very well. There were few excuses for others to make the long journey all the way out to his home. Thus, isolating himself was easy. 

Occasionally, someone (often Xisuma) would send a message his way, just a brief question of, “Is everything alright? We haven’t seen you in forever.” And his reply was always a variation of, “Yes, I’m just busy.” Send, rinse, and repeat. 

He purposely built all sorts of nooks and crannies into his builds, just in case someone stopped by to check on him in person. There was always somewhere to hide and too many places for any visitors to look. Most gave up rather quickly, after which xB would breathe a sigh of relief and get back to work. 

The only person he knew the hiding wouldn’t work for was Joe, a light seeker who could see through any illusion. The poet was so experienced that xB knew of no way to escape his tracking. Thankfully, they hadn’t set Joe on him yet. It was only a matter of time, however, and once he was found, it would be the beginning of the end.

Violet eyes were a warning and deterrent. Sure, they all accepted Xisuma, but xB couldn’t trust that the hermits would do the same for him. The chances were too high that he would be thrown out of the group and left to fend for himself. He would never be able to join another community. At least while this safe place was still available, he could savor it and build to his heart’s content. When his reckoning came, the carefully constructed homes and base in the sky wouldn’t be enough to save him, but he could squeeze as much life and fulfillment out of this opportunity as he possibly could.

Fate seemed to be toying with him even more, though, and making enjoying his last bits of time difficult. Ever since that incident with the mirrors, xB had had a lingering headache. Sometimes, it clamped together the sides of his head so hard that he could barely breathe. After those times, he would often faint, return to consciousness several hours later, and have a day or so of respite before the headache came back.

Additionally, his building alignments never seemed to be straight. Perhaps his headache was bad enough to cause hallucinations (actually, with random objects appearing in his vision, he likely was hallucinating), but it almost felt like his building materials were moving randomly. Occasionally, small objects fell out of the sky, puzzling him even further. Getting anything in a correct line was a struggle and often made him want to give up altogether. Still, he pressed on. There was nothing else to do to pass the time.

The real wild card in his whole solution was that eventually, xB needed more building materials. Stone and wood he could easily find around his base, but he required more specific items. Concrete and glass only came from deserts, none of which were too close to his area. On the other hand, there were multiple concrete shops in the shopping district. It would be so much easier just to buy the materials from there. The only question was how he would hide his violet eyes. 

After another uncomfortable, almost sleepless night, the answer finally came to him. Xisuma wore his helmet plenty, and outsiders assumed his eyes only looked purple because of the tint of the glass. xB surely had enough glass, dye, and spare parts lying around to construct a helmet of his own.

For several days, that was his pet project, and he spent every spare moment tinkering with the wiring and design. To fit his color scheme, the helmet was mostly black and the borders between parts were neon blue. The visor was violet, but it still managed to fit with the overall aesthetic. 

Finally, he was satisfied with his creation and tested it out while building for the day. It didn’t relieve the headache or help with his other random problems, but some of his omnipresent fear that his incriminating eyes would be seen had disappeared. Everything was ready for a visit to the shopping district.

He specifically picked out a day and marked it on a calendar so that he wouldn’t chicken out of it. Like a kid on the first day of school, he set an alarm to wake up early so that he could encounter less people. Pulling on his helmet and taking a few deep breaths, xB finally stepped into his Nether portal for the first time in weeks and entered the hellish dimension for faster travel.

The walking was unmemorable, much like his puttering around at his base. All the building, realignment, headaches, and such became a blur when repeated with little variety of routine for months. Similarly, the netherrack didn’t provide enough of an abnormality to stick in xB’s mind. 

Finally, the beautiful Nether hub came into viewing distance, and xB dared to smile at the sight. False had done such a fantastic job on the details and had incorporated all sorts of elements from the hermits’ recent voyages into the Deep Nether.

The magical portal soon sucked xB into the space between dimensions and spat him out in the shopping district. After taking a moment to shake the cobwebs out of his head (also noting that his headache was starting to really press on him), he began to stroll down the main street of the shopping district, illuminated by the light of the pre-sunrise.

At the intersection pointing towards Xisuma and Keralis’ concrete shop, xB thought for a minute about whether he should visit that shop or Tango and Impulse’s masterpiece of Color Complete. He eventually decided upon the bee duo, since he was truly intrigued by Xisuma’s renovation of the area into a moon biome. 

As he grinned at all of the amazing details the admin had added to the terraforming, xB couldn’t ignore how tightly his head was clamping together. A few deep breaths seemed to calm the pressure enough for him to visibly look fine, which was good enough. He’d just have to finish up his trip early, unfortunately. Perhaps he could come back some other time when he was feeling better to admire the landscaping some more.

Looking around for the path leading up to the concrete shop, his eyes instead landed on another hermit. The person was exiting The Block Exchange, smiling widely and cradling a rainbow-striped toy sheep’s head (at least, he hoped it was a toy head). They quickly noticed xB standing around and ran up to him.

“Oh, hey xB! I haven’t seen you in weeks!” Beef’s chipper voice was a bit of a shock to his partially-asleep system, but he couldn’t help smiling a bit at the enthusiasm.

“Really?” It was just easier to play dumb to get out of the small talk.

“No, none of us have. It’s nice to see you again! Even if I can’t really see your face. Say, that’s a really nice helmet,” the butcher added.

“Thank you! I’ve been working on it for a while.” That was most definitely true. 

“Was that what kept you so busy?” A knowing eyebrow was raised, but xB knew that Beef’s air bending powers couldn’t see through a lie. Even so, it was better to stick as closely to the technical truth as possible.

“That, and building. I might have gotten carried away,” he sheepishly admitted, “but the base is looking great.”

“I’ll have to go visit sometime.”

“O-oh.” The stammer didn’t come as much from the concern about someone visiting his home than a sudden wave of pain that surged through his head, causing him to involuntarily snap forward a bit.

“xB? Are you okay?” All the cheer was gone now, replaced with genuine concern. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Everything’s cool,” xB reassured him.

“You don’t sound too sure of it.” 

_ He can’t tell if you’re lying. Just end this conversation and you can get home before you pass out,  _ he thought.

“I’m good, no need to worry.”

Beef sighed heavily, still not looking convinced. Truth be told, xB wasn’t too convinced by his own arguments himself.

“If, if you say so,” the butcher responded. 

It finally appeared as if Beef was ready to end the conversation, and xB just had to wait for him to add an awkward goodbye. In that moment, his headache took the opportunity to surge once again. Trying not to scream, xB tried biting the inside of his cheek, but the pressure was so tight that a shriek escaped him anyway. 

At the sound, the butcher jerked into wide-eyed panic, staring right at xB.

“Okay, you are not fine,” he clearly stated. xB could barely hear him, though, as his whole body was violently shaking and his gaze was fixed straight ahead.  _ Damn it,  _ he admonished himself.  _ Please don’t pass out here, right in front of him. Not right now. This is not a good time to pass out. _

“Did I offend you?” Beef still wasn’t getting it, but that was at the very back of xB’s head, which was rapidly shutting down. Spinning, white images flooded all of his senses once more.

“xB?” Just when the sensory overload seemed to be at the tipping point, it started to fade to black. Everything was swept away and every anchor was cast aside, leaving him feeling weightless and powerless. 

Violet eyes.

Four white dots, slowly rotating.

“xB?!?”

Then, nothing.


	2. Construct

Black enveloped everything, but gave way to light when kindly requested. This, however, was not a kind request. With a jolt, all the darkness suddenly vanished, and color was thrust into xB’s vision. He had suddenly regained control of his body, as well, and noticed that his surroundings had drastically changed.

For one, there were blankets underneath him, not the hard, cold glass that he must have fallen on in the shopping district. Second, a man in golden armor was right in front of him, nervously tapping away at a screen. 

“xB?” The voice was familiar. Even if he was still having trouble seeing things, or rather, seeing things twice, there was at least something to anchor to. 

“Hmm?” he managed to grunt out.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay. After Beef brought you here, I had to forcefully wake you up to make sure that you were still alive and uninjured.” Xisuma’s calming accent gave the room a more cozy aura, regardless of the slightly disconcerting news. Said butcher was present in the room, though he hadn’t spoken yet. 

“Did I faint again?” xB slowly asked, still trying to get used to the sudden light.

“Wait…” the admin paused. “ _ Again _ ?” Xisuma seemed to be staring directly into xB’s soul for far too long to be comfortable. It took a little too much time for xB to figure out what he was doing, as by then, the admin was already shaking his head.

“This isn’t even close to the first time, isn’t it?” Unfortunately, xB had sort of forgotten that Xisuma was a time seeker, and thus could see into his past quite easily.

“... no,” he admitted, knowing that he couldn’t get away with lying now.

“How long has this been happening?” 

“Um… a few months?” Xisuma had his helmet on, so it might have been hard to read his emotions, as long as you were ignoring the gigantic sigh.

“xB, you need to tell me everything that’s been happening to you since you shut yourself off from everyone. I don’t want to, but if you’re leaving anything out, I can dive into your timeline and figure it out myself.”   
With a sigh of his own, xB began to tell his tale. The constant headache, the passing out, the hallucinations, the random objects seeming to fall from the sky, the building blocks always out of alignment; it all spilled out to the admin, who listened patiently and only interrupted once. He had started explaining the cyclic fainting when Xisuma pulled off his own helmet and began to thread his fingers through his black hair.

“xB, why didn’t you tell anyone about this?!?”

“Because, because of this.”

Slowly, xB unclasped the latches that held his own helmet in place, squeezing his eyes shut. The barrier, his carefully constructed facade, was voluntarily taken down and he felt fresh air on his cheeks for the first time in weeks. The last step was so simple, yet unbelievably hard. He opened his eyes, revealing the luminescent violet. This was the beginning of the end.

The movement was subtle, but xB could tell that Beef had flinched back at the sight. Xisuma’s emotions were unreadable, which was somehow more terrifying than Beef’s reaction. 

“When did your eyes change?” Xisuma quietly asked.

“A few months ago. I tried to brush it off, but… the mirror wouldn’t let me,” he sighed, remembering the shards of glass raining down and the painful crash. “I thought it was a glitch, but it just didn’t get fixed. It didn’t go away. That was when I knew that I was too dangerous to be around. If anyone found me, I would be forced to leave. I didn’t want to cause any harm, so I stayed away.” 

Annoyingly enough, Xisuma didn’t comment on xB’s conclusions, which he had thought certain to provoke a reaction. Instead, he reached into a nearby bag, rustled about the contents for a few moments, and retrieved a pen. The object was set on the ground beside xB, who stared at it blankly.

“I might know what’s going on, but I need you to complete a short test for me,” the admin explained. “Can you look right at that pen, like you are right now?”

The instruction was simple enough to comply with; in fact, it was almost insultingly easy.

“Focus. Concentrate all of your mental energy on that pen,” Xisuma levelly instructed. “Let yourself go. You are safe to give in here.” 

For a second, xB was unsure of what Xisuma meant by “letting himself go”, but suddenly, he felt as if he were on the edge of a mental tipping point. It wasn’t the location that felt unfamiliar, rather that the instinct to scramble away from the edge was significantly diminished by the admin’s reassurance. It was so hard to describe the feeling, but it  _ was _ quite freeing to let the current sweep him off the side and into the unknown.

As xB traversed the waters and cliffs of his mind, Xisuma let out a gentle “hmm”.

“Interesting,” he mused. “Now, do you see any other pens?”

“Mhm.” A second one had been there ever since the beginning of the test. xB had always chalked it up to double vision, but Xisuma seemed to be slowly arriving at a different conclusion.

“Focus on that now. Concentrate. Let yourself go.”

Once again, xB came to the mental cliff, though this time, he freely dived off the edge. With that jump in his brain completed, the second pen became even more tangible all of the sudden. It was almost as if it were real.

“Breathe. Reach out your hand and touch it,” was the next set of instructions. A good chunk of xB’s more rational mind was about to deploy the brakes and bring up the fact that the pen wasn’t actually real. However, a spark of curiosity enabled him to continue. 

The tips of his fingers touched the floor right next to the second pen, inchworming along the ground until he was just a sliver away from the object. Thoroughly expecting it to just be an illusion, a jolt ran through xB as he realized that he was actually touching the plastic casing of the pen. 

It  _ was  _ real. But how?

“Pick it up, Bring it towards you.” His curiosity piqued even more, xB followed the next set of instructions, grasping the slim pen in the fingers of his left hand. As he brought his hand towards him, there was a small spot of random resistance, almost like an invisible piece of gelatin, that he had to pull a bit harder to get through, but it otherwise stayed right in his palm.

Suddenly, a startled yelp from Beef broke the spell, and xB stumbled backwards. 

“xB! Your… your hand!” the butcher cried.

Looking down, xB’s eyes widened. There was a pen on the ground, the one Xisuma had most definitely placed down. Yet, in his hand, there was the exact same pen. Glancing wildly up at the admin, Xisuma seemed to be piecing together a puzzle, and at last he had solved it.

“Oh my goodness me, it all makes sense now!” he cheered.

xB merely stared at the admin, waiting for him to announce his conclusion. 

“You’re 21, right?” 

He nodded.

“Aha! You’ve had your magical awakening.”

“But, I didn’t think I had any magic at all,” he slowly muttered. “Aren’t you supposed to get yours when you’re a child?”

“Not necessarily. It just happens before you turn 22, which is when you first have full power. Since you didn’t start until a few months ago, you’re almost at full power right away, which is definitely causing your headaches. You told me that the pressure from that was causing you to pass out, which makes sense. I didn’t start developing my magic until I was 14, and I fainted more than a few times. I can’t imagine what it would be like at your age.”

“So what about the hallucinations?” xB questioned, still not quite seeing the connection.

“Your purple eyes gave me a clue, but I really needed that pen test. Now I know that it’s just your magic,” Xisuma explained, practically buzzing with excitement at having solved such a problem.

“But what kind of cursed magic would cause me to see weird stuff?” Laying down on the floor once more, xB stared at the blank ceiling, struggling with the mental gymnastics.

“Simple,” the admin cheerfully replied. “You are a Voidwalker space warper.”

The room was silent for a good length of time as the words tumbled around in xB’s brain.

“A Voidwalker… space… warper…”

“Let me explain,” the admin responded, smiling gently. “You have the ability to manipulate any object in our current reality. That’s why you were able to move the pen on the ground. That’s the space warper part. However, the purple eyes mean you’re either an admin, walker, or slasher. What you describe as double vision is actually seeing objects in alternate universes. It’s like wearing glasses that have drawings on the lenses. You see that over top of your current reality.

“On the ground, you saw that second pen, which was from an alternate universe. When you reached out and picked it up, you brought it into our current reality. That’s why you have another pen in your hand. That means that you are a Voidwalker. In summary, you can manipulate and see objects from not only our reality, but other realities. It’s really quite amazing what magic can do.”

Briefly scanning the room (well, the one in his current reality, if he was understanding what Xisuma was explaining), xB noted Xisuma’s unusual chipperness, even to the point of hyperactivity, and Beef still looking a bit confused and terrified. Honestly, his own feelings more closely resembled that of the butcher’s.

“So… is that why my building blocks were moving?” he eventually asked.

“I suspect that because you have had no formal instruction, your magic has been lashing out randomly and moving those blocks.”

Finally grasping that crucial piece of the puzzle, xB mumbled a small “ahh”. There was one deeply pressing question, though, and he knew that he couldn’t go much longer without the answer.

“Am I dangerous?”

Once again, annoyingly tense silence descended upon the room as Xisuma pieced together an answer. It left far too much room for the impactful words, few as they may be, to infiltrate wandering thoughts.

“If you’re asking if you’re a slasher, the answer is no,” the admin answered at last, his emotions still quite level and calm. “We would have known much sooner if you were. However, if you cannot control your extraordinary powers, then you could potentially be dangerous to others. Thus, we need to get you trained.”

This time, xB flinching was not a result of his headache, instead of the shocking news. He had mentally prepared himself for weeks that he would be banished almost instantly if his eye color was discovered. Xisuma first recommending training had never been a possibility in his mind.

“You’re not banning me?” xB dazedly inquired.

“Why would I do that?” It was simply ridiculous to xB how surprised the admin seemed at his question.

“The, the eyes!” he sputtered. “I thought you would just see me and know that I was too dangerous to be around here. I’m marked as something horrible. How can anyone trust me?”

Hiding his face behind his hands, xB waited for the damning reply that he was certain was to come. Though he most definitely wanted to stay with the Hermitcraft group, somehow it was disappointing that his pessimistic expectations of banishment were not being fulfilled.

“It often astounds me how incorrect our assumptions can be, and how cruel we can be to ourselves,” Xisuma mused. “You are not a slasher, because that would show in your eyes. Four white dots means a space elemental, the dots rotating means a warper, and it rotating clockwise means Voidwalker. If you were a slasher, your eyes would be in constant cycles of gradients. Your eye color is stable. Even if you were a slasher, we would find a way to keep you stable, or even help you remove your magic if you wished to do so. 

“We are a community, xB. All of us come from different places, different magical identities, different past lives. We aren’t going to throw you out just because you deviate from some social norm. And if you feel like you can’t ask for help when you are struggling, you are dead wrong.”

“Oh.” That last statement had finally drilled the truth into xB: they trusted him. They believed him. They wanted to keep him around.  _ He was safe here. _

“Okay. So, how am I supposed to be trained? I don’t know if I’d feel comfortable being around everyone until I can control this,” he admitted with a light sigh.

“Unfortunately, I don’t believe anyone here would be of great use,” Xisuma responded, scrunching up his face a bit. “I’m merely an admin time seeker, and the closest we could get is Grian, who is an ordinary space warper. However, I do know someone that can help you.”

“Who?” 

“His name is Aleksei, and he’s a Voidwalker space warper, just like you. You might better know him as Evil X, however.” 


	3. Code

“B-but,” Beef stammered, “he’s evil! You’ve said so yourself!”

“Truly, I was the one who was wrong the whole time,” Xisuma sighed, earning a surprised glance from xB. “It’s a bit of a long story, but if you have nothing better to do, I’ll tell it.”

Both xB and Beef were staring at Xisuma wildly, and it was obvious that they wanted to know all the details. xB’s belief had always been that Evil Xisuma was, well, evil. Why else would his name be that? 

The admin seemed to interpret the sentiment fairly quickly and sighed as he pulled his knees to his chest, still sitting on the floor.

“Aleksei, my brother, developed his magic starting at nine, and he was very skilled even before he reached full power,” he began. “I was excited when I turned out to be an admin, but he always warned me that even if I couldn’t manipulate time, my powers could still do terrible things to people. Being a somewhat rebellious teenager, I usually shrugged off his advice.

“When I was chosen to lead this group, I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle it, but soon I got very comfortable with the responsibilities that came with the job. Occasionally, I would get a bit too comfortable and start making risky decisions by myself. Whenever Aleksei sensed that I was too close to the edge, he would intervene.

“He was so talented with his magic that he could pull people in and out of alternate universes, and even put them in a sort of limbo where they could observe, but not interact, with anything. Several times in earlier years, I was on the verge of making a potentially dangerous decision for the stability of the group. Aleksei would pull me out of my current reality and take me to observe one where I had made that decision.

“In that alternate universe, I could see the consequences of my actions. In the best case scenario, it would create an annoying bug. He only intervened when I was about to do something disastrous, though, so it was never any better than that. Most of the time, it would be much worse. I’d create a glitch that wouldn’t go away, the group would lose their trust in each other, someone would get hurt. Occasionally, someone died as a result.

“Before he went, he’d always remind me that I had the potential to do terrible things. Usually a day or two had passed by the time he returned me to this reality. After a bit of reflection, I would reverse my decision and thank Aleksei for his help.

“Eventually, people started to wonder why I was disappearing. The time they actually asked me was when I was grumpy at Aleksei. Because of that, I said that I had to deal with ‘Evil Xisuma’. I brought in details from those alternate universes to make it seem like he was truly evil and cruel to me, and that I was a hero for fighting him. Once I started that lie, I couldn’t undo it.

“When Aleksei caught wind of the talk about ‘Evil Xisuma’, he very quickly figured out what was going on. Before I knew it, he had shoved me into the limbo of our reality and made me watch as he entered the world. For two days, he walked around, interacting with the hermits and noting their reactions to him, the fabled ‘Evil Xisuma’.

“I was terrified, as I didn’t have the power to leave the limbo and I was thoroughly stuck. I was also scared to death of his anger and what he would do to me. After all, I had done him terribly wrong. I had abused my power of the hermits’ trust in me. I had disregarded his precious advice. 

“When he came back, he didn’t instantly strangle me, which was surprising. Instead, he walked up to me and asked one question. ‘Why?’ 

“I stared at him blankly, not understanding what he meant.

“‘Why what?’ I replied. 

“He said, ‘Why did you tell them that I was evil?’ 

“I could barely squeak an answer out, but I eventually responded with, ‘I was mad when they asked me. And when I wasn’t mad anymore, I couldn’t undo it.’

“Aleksei silently looked at me for a few tense moments, then quietly said, ‘I have always told you that you have special powers. You can use them for good or evil. Whichever you choose, there will be consequences. This is what you have chosen. This has been a consequence.’

“And I hated how right he was, but I was so ashamed of my decision. All I could reply with was, ‘I’m sorry.’

“‘I know,’ he answered, ‘but there are still consequences. I’m not going to help you anymore. I’ve shown you the future effects of your decisions for long enough. You are old enough to know to think things through. I don’t hate you. I can still be your brother, and if you need to talk, let me know. I’m not going to take you to alternate universes anymore, though. Understand?’ 

“I nodded, and he returned me to this reality. We’ve talked a few times since then, and we’re on decent terms. He’s taught me an important lesson, and I believe that you will really benefit from working with him. He has a strict code of ethics concerning magic, especially with his special abilities. I should have learned it sooner.

“It’s a lot of words, I know,” Xisuma added. “I said it would be a long story. But, after hearing that, are you willing to work with him?”

Xisuma’s gaze had become pinned to the floor and he had been gently rocking back and forth while telling his story. xB remained silent, still processing everything that the admin had just said. This perspective didn’t reconcile with the version of events in his head, and it was quite a load to change those beliefs.

Now, xB was living in a world where Evil Xisuma wasn’t evil. A world where Xisuma hadn’t always been the good guy. It was a strange place. The so-called “evil” brother almost seemed to be the better of the two.

At the same time, he knew that no one was infallible, and that code of ethics Xisuma had mentioned must have been tested at some point. Aleksei (that was his real name) had likely created it to prevent himself from hurting others. That was what xB was most worried about.

Out of all of his fears, the fear that he would be scorned and the fear that no one would trust him, among many others, there was one that outshadowed all of them. He was terrified that he would hurt someone else. The guilt of knowing that he was the reason someone else was injured in any form would be simply unbearable.

This had already been a very strange day. xB had been certain that this was the end for him, yet it only seemed to be a beginning. Instead of pushing him off of the cliff, Xisuma was offering him a hand. An opportunity not only to remain in a safe place, but to learn how to not hurt others. 

It was up to him whether to grab that hand tightly or let go entirely. All it would take was one word, and xB knew what it needed to be.

“Yes.”

A small smile tugged at the admin’s lips, and he nodded thoughtfully. 

“That’s good. I’ll contact Aleksei as soon as I possibly can and let you know what he says.”

An invisible weight had been removed from the room, and xB finally felt like he could breathe again. He was safe and loved, and he had a plan for the future. Of course, a meeting would have to be called with everyone to inform them about the situation, but Xisuma would protect him. In time, he might even be trusted again. Oh, how sweet the feeling was.

With tears forming in his violet eyes, xB carefully sat up and wrapped his arms around Xisuma. The admin reciprocated the gesture easily, anchoring both of them while in stormy seas of emotions. 

The truth was that xB wasn’t dangerous. The truth was that the others cared about him. The truth was that he was safe and loved. The truth wasn’t dangerous; it was comforting in every possible way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all that I have written. However, this might not be the end of the story. I know that I’ve wrapped it up all nice, but I’ve left myself plenty of loose ends to wrap up if I ever get inspiration for it. If any of you want to finish this, just let me know, and I’ll be happy to see what you come up with. Also, I’ll try to remember to post a list of magical abilities in another chapter sometime today. That might be generally helpful. :)


	4. Magic AU Notes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This fic was building off of my magic AU, and it might just be easier if all of you know what it is.

First, here are the notes about individual character abilities.

  * Bdubs (Void, earth bender)
  * Cub (Vex, earth caster)
  * Doc (Void, metal bender+caster)
  * Etho (Void, ice bender)
  * False (Void, time warper)
  * Grian (Void, space seeker)
  * Hypno (Void, internal blood bender)
  * Impulse (Void, water bender)
  * Iskall (Void, metal caster)
  * Jevin (Void, internal blood bender)
  * Joe (Void, light seeker)
  * Keralis (Void, earth bender)
  * Mumbo (Void, metal bender)
  * Ren (Void, fire bender)
  * Scar (Vex, earth bender)
  * Stress (Void, ice caster)
  * Tango (Void, fire caster)
  * TFC (Void, metal caster)
  * VintageBeef (Void, air bender)
  * Welsknight (Void, water bender)
  * xB (Voidwalker, space warper)
  * Xisuma (Void-admin, time seeker)
  * Zedaph (Void, blood caster+bender, former slasher who was cured with an experimental treatment)
  * ZombieCleo (Void, water caster)



**Magic Notes:**

  * There are three components to a person’s magical identity: their parent group, their elemental subtype, and their main, distinguishing ability.
  * Nearly everyone has either Vex or Void magic. Those are the two parent groups. Rarely, someone will have a third type of magic usually referred to as “gray magic”, which is basically an awkward blend of the two magic types. These are _very_ rare, though. The parent group factor into what types of abilities a person would be able to learn. For political purposes, the two magic groups live mostly apart and on opposite ends of the world. 
  * The three most common elementental subtypes are water, fire, and earth. Other commonish types are ice, metal, blood, and air. The most rare types are light, time, and space. Coincidentally, those mages are also the most dangerous. 
  * Water mages can control flows of water. Fire mages can create and manipulate fire. Earth mages can shift and morph the ground. Air mages may seem useless, but they can sometimes change up the chemical composition of the air and the weather, and they can very easily suffocate people. Ice mages can create and morph ice. Metal mages can construct almost any type of machine. Blood mages are healers and can draw on the life of objects to heal other things. Light mages can distort the light and create illusions. Time mages can open windows into events in different places on the timeline and potentially manipulate the event to change the outcome. Magical time travel, if you will. Space mages can shift the position of nearly any object.
  * More common among Vex mages: ice, earth, water, fire, space, light
  * More common among Void mages: metal, blood, air, time
  * The last piece is the ability. Some are element-specific, but there are also some that are universal for all types.
  * Casters are best at creating objects within their elemental type. The stronger ones can also manipulate well, but creating is easier. These are more often Vex mages.
  * Benders are most skilled at manipulating objects within the realm of their element. Very strong ones can also create, but changing the object is more natural. These are more often Void mages.
  * Casters and benders exist for all elemental types and parent groups. The rest are more specific.
  * Blood mages have a few special subtypes: internals can only heal using their own life force and externals can only heal using some other life force. Carnies can’t use plants, while hervies can only use plants. All blood mages can heal, but most are benders. Casters, while rare, can create life from any material.
  * Seekers are light, time, and space mages who can see into other times, spaces, and objects. How much useful information they can decipher, however, depends on how skilled the mage is. Seekers can _only_ see.
  * Warpers are light, time, and space mages who can actually manipulate those three elements. They are very rare, but extremely dangerous. Warpers can manipulate and _also_ see.
  * Slasher is a term for referring to Vex and Void mages whose ability only allows them to destroy. They cannot create objects and can only manipulate them in ways that damage living things. Often, slashers will have their magic completely removed for fear of harming others. Slashers are very, very rare (and slightly more common among the Vex), but they are often the cause of wars and general violence.
  * Everyone has a main ability that is very easy for them to learn. However, they can learn other abilities with time, practice, and patience.
  * Some time, light, and space mages are admins or walkers. 
  * Admins have an additional ability that allows them to change people’s life code. About the only things they can’t change are their parent group and elemental type. Depending on the admin’s strength, they _can_ change their abilities. Physical traits, personality traits, and even memories can be changed using admin magic. However, they can only do this for people that have declared them to be their leader. (That is a formal process that involves a minor piece of the follower’s magic being transferred to the leader.) The admin magic has a fairly small range, too.
  * Walkers (Vexwalkers or Voidwalkers, based on their parent group) can see things that exist in previous or future times, as well as alternate universes. It’s like augmented reality, but from magic. Walker warpers can pull objects from other times/alternate universes into their current reality. (Think Elizabeth in Bioshock Infinite.) It takes a lot of strength, though. 
  * Not every space, light, and time mage is a walker. Space mages who are not walkers can manipulate/see objects only in their own reality. Light mages who are not walkers can only create/see illusions in their own reality. Time mages who are not walkers can only manipulate/see time in their own reality. The main difference between walkers and non-walkers is that walkers can also manipulate/see objects/illusions/times in alternate universes.
  * Needless to say, slasher walkers and admins are very, very, very dangerous. They are very, very, very rare, but it only takes one plus the right set of circumstances for the entire world to collapse…
  * All walkers, admins, and slashers have violet eyes. Most flame and some metal mages have red eyes. Other than that, everyone else has normal eye colors (blue, green, grey, brown, hazel, etc;)
  * Every mage’s irises will occasionally change shape to a symbol correlating to their elemental type and/or main ability.



**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this maybe clears up some things. :)

**Author's Note:**

> Next part will come out on Wednesday, January 6. Have a lovely day!


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